Great Muta Calls Shinsuke Nakamura A Gay Slur After New Year's Day Match

Great Muta and Shinsuke Nakamura shared something of a New Year's kiss at Pro Wrestling NOAH's The New Year on Sunday. Nakamura locked lips with Muta, sucking the infamous green mist from Muta's mouth, and spat the notorious spray back in Muta's face, then leveling the legend with a Bomaye knee strike to win the match, Muta's last singles match in his career.

Shinsuke's unorthodox technique for neutralizing Muta's mist impressed the retiring legend, but Muta's post-match comments were brief and controversial. 

"He's good. Shinsuke, good," Muta said, "but maybe he's queer." Muta seems to go even further with his assessment saying "He's F***** maybe. Bye-bye, Shinsuke. No more." Muta then thanked the reporters for their time and exited the backstage area. Pro Wrestling NOAH has uploaded the statements to their YouTube channel, and Japanese and English Twitter accounts, with fans noting that the transcriptions of the comments focused on the farewell instead of the derogatory terms that preceded them.

The remarks are a stain on an otherwise well-received and historic retirement tour for The Great Muta (real name Keiji Mutoh). So revered is Mutoh that WWE allowed Nakamura to compete in Pro Wrestling NOAH despite his active status as a WWE Superstar. After facing a WWE Superstar in Nakamura, Muta is set to team with All Elite Wrestling's Sting and Darby Allin on January 22 against yet-to-be-named opponents at Great Muta Bye-Bye in Yokohama.

LGBTQIA representation in professional wrestling has come far in the last twenty years, with prominent wrestlers like Fred Rosser and Anthony Bowens rising to prominence without the albatross of bigotry that hung on so many gay wrestlers of the past. However, comments like Muta's are a fresh reminder that such progress is still, as Prior Walter said in Angels in America, "so much not enough."